Gathering and Webinar: Violations of International Humanitarian Law

On Thursday 11/2 we will join with @bayanseattle @samidounseattle and allies to hold a gathering (and webinar) from 6:30-8:00 PST discussing these violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), especially urgent as we have now lost contact with those on the ground in Gaza.

✉️ We are calling for sign-on support to a letter from Labor for Palestine to cease the genocide in Gaza now, as well as a letter to US Congress denouncing the extrajudicial killing of Jude Fernandez (both sign-ons are linked in event registration).

The 11/2 gathering will be held at MPOP x CID Coalition Worker Center, with remote webinar access also available; registration and letter sign-on info available here: tinyurl.com/humanrightsunderattack

On October 3rd, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) released an urgent update on the brutal killing of Jude Fernandez, a Filipino labor leader who spent his time organizing workers to campaign for higher wages and better working conditions. Jude Fernandez started labor organizing during the era of Martial Law under Marcos Sr. and had continued the work until now.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) who perpetrated the murder, claimed that Jude attempted to fight back in an attempt to justify the killing, despite him being an unarmed unionist. This is the 72nd labor-related killing in the Philippines since 2016 and the fourth within this year of 2023, by paramilitary units funded by the United States. We view these attacks as not just against one person, but the whole of the Philippine labor movement, and of the international labor movement.

US funding and support for attacks against the people is not isolated to the Philippines, as we have continued to see with the most recent bombings on the Palestinian people. The Biden administration has continued to express support for the apartheid state of Israel, despite their campaign of genocide against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, dropping 6,000 bombs between October 7th and October 12th, the use of White Phosphorous bombs against populated areas, as well as en masse “terror-tagging” and continued bombings of civilians and evacuation routes.